


fire burn and cauldron bubble

by icebucky



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Gryffindor Liam, Hogwarts AU, Hufflepuff Harry, Hufflepuff Niall, I mean, Ravenclaw Zayn, Slytherin Louis, based on a prompt i found on tumblr, but i'm not revealing who yet, harry definitely kissed someone, may just be ot5 with no actual relationships, not sure if i'm putting in any relationships, we will see
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 07:39:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10939986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icebucky/pseuds/icebucky
Summary: Louis is a classic prankster, Liam is an Auror in training, Harry is a pureblood from a long line of witches and wizards, Niall is a forgetful but loyal Herbology nerd, and Zayn is just trying to pass his fucking N.E.W.T.s - and all of them are hiding a secret. When Professor Trelawney announces that instead of the traditional exam at the end of their seventh year, the class must complete a three part trial over the course of their last term in groups of five. Based on what the Inner Eye has revealed to her, the boys are forced to work together in order to pass, somehow becoming friends along the way.





	fire burn and cauldron bubble

**Author's Note:**

> okay!!! hey nerdos. this is actually my first """""real"""" 1d fic - i've written a blurb or two in the past but this is something that i have actually really enjoyed working on. so for the rundown and a little background info; this takes place in the same year as harry potter and the half-blood prince. i made all the boys the same age so that they would be in the same divination class. they're a year older than the golden trio and a year younger than like, fred & george. i have done a lot of planning for this, and it's going to be many a chapter. to be honest, i'm super busy so i'm probably going to be TERRIBLE about updating, but if you want to yell at me about my lack of updates, feel free to yell at me on twitter - my @ on there is siriusorioff.
> 
> ok thanks pals! hope you like it, and any comments or kudos would mean the WORLD to me!!

Harry has never set much store in the benefits of taking Divination, yet here he is, in his seventh year, chewing on his quill in his last term of this class. Maybe he takes it because it's an easy O and between him and Niall, they can bullshit their way through all their assignments, but either way, Harry's fairly certain that in all the generations that the Styles family has been attending Hogwarts, there hasn't been a single successful Seer among them.

Niall's sitting next to him now, nodding off as Professor Trelawney drones on about their impending N.E.W.T.s. God, Harry would give anything to be in Firenze's class instead; at least they get to sit on the floor and burn marshmallows or something.

He's forced to pay attention again when Niall jerks in his sleep, head slipping off the hand propping it up, and bangs his chin on the table. Professor Trelawney is on them in an instant, swooping over with her shawls waving and her beads rattling. As she shouts at Niall, telling him that the Inner Eye has revealed to her that he'll fail all his N.E.W.T.s before drowning, Harry attempts to pay attention before getting almost immediately distracted by the sight and faint sound of laughter across the room.

In the second row of seats, he can see a boy with tousled light brown hair and Slytherin robes, laughing with his feet up on the table, nudging the boy next to him, who's wearing Ravenclaw robes and seems to be having trouble staying awake. Harry and the laughing Slytherin boy make eye contact for a split second before Professor Trelawney is on him as well, shouting, "You would do well to pay closer attention to your classmate's level of drowsiness, Mr. Styles! Why, I would guess that this could have a certain impact on your own performance, if what the Inner Eye is telling me is accurate!"

Harry just manages to get out, "Um," before Professor Trelawney is swirling in the middle of the classroom, where she claps her hands once and calls for the class' attention in a shrill voice.

"The time has come," she proclaims, "for you to focus on your upcoming N.E.W.T. examinations! Perhaps I have been too lax in the work I've issued to you students, after all, knowing what lies ahead has made me... sympathetic, perhaps, to your struggles." She pauses, as if waiting for them to take in the dramatic effect of her statements; Harry can see some students eyeing each other warily. "In any case, I have decided to forego the regular N.E.W.T. exams and try an experimental project!"

The silence in the room breaks into little murmurs, and Harry elbows Niall sharply next to him. Niall sits up with a snort and a clear of his throat, whispering, "What'd I miss?"

"New final project instead of the normal N.E.W.T.? And unsurprisingly, Trelawney thinks we're all going to die."

Niall huffs a short laugh. "What else is new? Didn't she say I'm drowning?"

"Of course," Harry replies, eyes following Trelawney as she swoops down on another unsuspecting student, "but frankly I'm surprised she didn't say you were going to choke on a chicken nugget or something."

"I'm surprised you know what a chicken nugget  _is_ , Styles."

Harry narrows his eyes, preparing to make a deceptively sharp retort, when from the center of the room, Professor Trelawney shouts, "The Inner Eye -" she pauses with her hands raised, looking around for dramatic effect, Harry can see the laughing Slytherin boy from across the room biting his hand to keep silent, "- has revealed to me the teams you shall be in for this project. When I call your names, form a small group and take one of these rolls of parchment -" she waves her wand, causing a small pile to appear, "- and begin."

Niall leans in close to Harry and whispers, "Take a shot every time Trelawney says Inner Eye."

"I'd rather not die of alcohol poisoning yet, thanks, Niall."

"NIALL HORAN!" Trelawney shouts from the middle of the room, and Niall visibly jumps. He stands and makes his way to her, casting Harry a look that clearly says  _why the fuck is she shouting_. Professor Trelawney all but shoveshim to the corner of the room, telling him that he needs to wait for the rest of his group, before she pulls a face that is clearly meant to be consulting the Inner Eye, but looks more like she's in extreme pain.

The rest of Niall's group is called fairly quickly - Liam Payne, a Gryffindor who looks like he has his shit together; Zayn Malik, the sleepy Ravenclaw from across the room; and Louis Tomlinson, the Slytherin who seems to find everything that comes out of Trelawney's mouth hysterical. Harry doesn't blame him; half the time he thinks she's being completely serious about the airs she puts on, but the other half he's almost sure she's making shit up.

The rest of Niall's group is standing awkwardly in a circle, waiting for Trelawney to either move on or to call someone else for their group, and Harry's since resigned himself to the fact that he'll never get put in a group with Niall and has started wondering who it is that he's going to get when she furrows her eyebrows - the effect comically magnified by her giant spectacles - and announces, "Harry Styles! You too, get over there."

Harry's so shocked at actually being assigned to a team with one of his friends that he lets out a surprisingly loud burst of laughter, then claps a hand over his mouth when they eyes of the entire room lock onto him. "Sorry, I - that was weird. Really, Professor?"

Trelawney presses her lips together in a surprisingly similar motion to Professor McGonagall and replies, "Yes, I suppose. This is against my better judgment, but the Inner Eye -" in the far corner of the room, Niall nudges Louis and mimes taking a shot, "- has seen this as one of the groups."

"Nice," Harry says, mostly to himself, before standing and joining the other boys.

Trelawney continues calling the groups and the five of them end up squeezed in the corner, not really talking - every time one of them starts to say something, the class collectively gets told to shut up - until Liam drags over several of the overly squishy poufs and they form a circle. When the rest of the class is separated - which takes several minutes, as Professor Trelawney seems to insist on pausing dramatically between each student's name ("I dunno why she didn't just post a list," Zayn mutters) - Niall finally unfurls the parchment with their assignment on it and sets it on the ground in the center of the circle.

There's a pause as they try to figure it out, Harry craning his neck to read it upside-down.

Finally, Louis says, "What the fuck is this supposed to be?"

"Uh," Harry begins, then stops. Niall cuts in, eloquently adding, "What the hell?"

Zayn's squinting at the page, apparently deep in thought. "Are these... tasks she wants us to do? Jesus, no wonder she's assigning this three months before the end of term."

"Three  _months_?" Louis says under his breath, giving Zayn an incredulous look. "Holy  _fuck_ , where does the time go?"

"Time flies when you're having fun," Harry says absently. Honestly, it was the first thing that came to his head, and he doesn't know why he said it, but everyone's giving him weird looks now and it's making him vaguely uncomfortable. There's a few seconds of silence before Louis snorts in laughter and Harry continues, "So I bet these next few months with you boys will be a breeze."

"Undoubtedly," Zayn replies, and Harry's about to say something more when Liam, who's been remarkably silent up until now - is he  _really_ a Gryffindor then, Harry wonders - interjects, "Wait, why do we have these tasks? What is this, Triwizard 2.0?"

"What does it say, Liam, I'm lazy," Louis asks, and he's attempting to twist on his pouf so that his legs will be all the way across the tiny circle to rest on Harry's. Harry wouldn't have objected, but Niall shoves Louis goodnaturedly so that his legs fall back to the floor with a jolt.

Liam doesn't look up from the parchment, which he's picked up from the floor, he just replies, "What else is new?" Louis, sitting to his right, flicks him on the shoulder. Liam clears his throat and continues, "It says that in order for us to pass our Divination N.E.W.T., we have to make it through these three tasks."

"Wh - make it through?" Zayn leans forward and tries to take the paper from Liam, who pulls it out of reach. "Is there, like, a chance we could die?"

"There's no fuckin' way Trelawney would be allowed to give us tests that would kill us, Dumbledore'd never let her do it."

"Yeah, Styles, you say that, but Dumbledore let Triwizard happen, and we all know what happened to Cedric Diggory."

"And, you know,  _You-Know-Who_ came back, but sure, that's a minor issue."

"Shut up, Tomlinson."

" _You_ shut it, Payne."

"Everyone shut up!" Niall interjects, and takes the parchment from Liam. "The three tasks," he reads, putting on a voice that sounds eerily like Professor Trelawney herself, which makes Louis stop trying to kick Liam, stifling a laugh, "are meant to test our ability to read the signs presented to us. It's a points-based system, and depending on how high our points are, the higher our grades will be."

"So what do we have to do?" Harry asks. They're all leaning far forward into the circle at this point, heads almost touching in a kind of huddle. Harry wouldn't mind except for the fact that someone's very sharp elbow is in his ribs, and because of the close quarters, he has no idea who it is.

Niall frowns. "Looks like the first task is a scavenger hunt? We're meant to be determining the end result based on the clues and the crystal balls? This makes no fuckin' sense, how can we put something together from these half-clues?"

"Put something together?" Zayn leans over and looks at the list, eyes narrowing. "It's a potion. We have to have a potion by the due date, and the list is the recipe."

"Thank  _god_ for Ravenclaws, am I right?" Louis says cheekily, giving Zayn a grin that seems to indicate that this is a teasing point that plays a key role in their friendship. "Always saving the day."

"Yeah, well, guess who's going to have to suck up to or suck off their Head of House to get the potions ingredients we need? Not me, mate."

Louis doesn't even flinch, his smile just deepens and he replies, "Ha, sucker, Snape's not even Potions anymore, you know that! Besides, Slughorn likes me, all I have to do is ask."

Harry laughs under his breath, shaking his head a little, and he opens his mouth as though he's going to say something when the bell rings. He changes his mind about what he was going to say, and instead asks, "So, uh, should we try and meet up to figure this out? Maybe Thursday in the -"

"Thursday's Quidditch," Niall interrupts, looking across the circle at Louis before adding, "and don't worry, we're gonna crush you in the match next weekend."

"Yeah? We'll see about that, Horan."

"How's Friday?" Liam suggests, and Niall shrugs in a sort of affirmative motion. "Four o'clock in the library?"

They all end up agreeing and heading out of the tower, successfully managing to slink past Trelawney, who is trying to hold students back to give them "advice", which seems to just hinge on increasingly morbid predictions on their future.

Harry and Niall have Transfiguration next, so they head in a different direction from the rest of their team, blending into the Hogwarts crowd for a while without speaking. Finally, Niall says, "So, what d'you think? About the project?"

"Uh," Harry begins, but gets a little distracted by the unmistakably bright hair of a Weasley across the hall. It's Ron, which means that he's undoubtedly flanked by Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, and Harry's taken back for a brief second to a short time spent in that corridor on the first floor that's covered by a tapestry and someone in there with him who he's absolutely sure that he'll never intentionally tell Niall about.

"Harry?"

"Uh, yeah, I just. I think we're in for an interesting few months."

Niall snorts. "Bit of an understatement, but yeah." He pushes the door open to McGonagall's classroom, and they take their usual seats. "To be honest, I think we'll be lucky if no one dies this year."

Harry starts to smile a little, and mutters, "With all those shots you said you'd be taking for Trelawney saying 'Inner Eye', I think you'll be dead the next Hogsmeade weekend, won't you?"

Niall lets out a sharp burst of laughter and the bell rings.

**Author's Note:**

> ooOOOoh who did harry kiss ??? find out eventually!!! also ps not sure if i'm including any relationships in here, just a for sure past history of a kiss with Someone ;)
> 
> twitter: @siriusorioff  
> instagram: emmakmarie  
> tumblr: siriusorioff


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